Within our culture, conventional thinking frequently concludes that the perpetrator most likely is male, and the victim female.

To wit, research shows men arrested at a higher rate than women when conflict escalates beyond that of mere disagreement among couples. Although society's image of domestic abuse revolves around the presumption that the woman is the victim, that is not always the case.

One case underscored this point last week when police accused a Hamden woman of stabbing her live-in boyfriend, 44-year-old Quinnipiac University cafeteria cook Lavern Brown. Brown died after being taken by ambulance to the hospital. Police arrested 51-year-old Rita Renee Johnson and said the "incident is being investigated as domestic violence and possibly started as an argument between Brown and Johnson."

The news hit an especially resonant chord with Penny Leisring, a professor of psychology at Quinnipiac. Leisring, a Waterbury native, researches intimate partner violence. Among the areas she focuses on is aggression perpetuated by women. She is slated to talk about the topic Wednesday in a lecture that was planned before her colleague's violent death. The discussion will center on reasons why women perpetrate such violence, and why it's important for society to be mindful that both men and women can initiate or suffer this kind of abuse.

The issue is complex, Leisring said, noting that most women charged with this form of violence are also victimized.

"Most (women) are not sole perpetrators. Many of those arrested are actually co-victims," said Leisring. She suggested several reasons for traditional views that paint men as batterers and women as victims. For one, she said, women tend to be more at risk of injury when things become physical. Another reason: gender roles. Labeling men as victims of physical or psychological abuse is emasculating, meaning many men do not report it. And society seems to permit aggression directed from woman to man, where it shuns aggression running the opposite direction, said Leisring.

"In many ways, we permit women to be aggressive," she said, explaining that boys are instructed early that it's not acceptable to hit girls, while girls are told to "whack" a guy if he "gets out of line."

Leisring pointed to a scene in the 2000 comedy "Me, Myself & Irene" in which Renee Zellweger's character kicks Jim Carey's character in the face. That the scene passes as comedy disturbs Leisring, who splits her time between Waterbury and Cape Cod with her lobsterman husband and 2-year-old son, Jack. If the roles were reversed, she said, people would be horrified, she said.

Leisring became interested in intimate partner violence as a research assistant while in graduate school at the State University of New York in Stonybrook. She started in the clinical psychology doctoral program, aiming for a concentration in child behavioral issues, but left with a an interest in intimate partner violence. As a doctoral candidate, she interned with the University of Massachusetts' Medical School/Worcester State Hospital, where she worked with "batterers groups" for both men and women. There, she performed intake evaluations and co-led group sessions for those charged with partner violence.

"It was one of the first programs in the country for women who were aggressive," said Leisring. She said that while some research has been done since, "there's still not that much research about these women, and what the treatment should look like compared to that for men."

Her latest inquiry focused on the reasons college women lash out either emotionally or physically in relationships. Her findings? Anger and retaliation for emotional hurt figure prominently.

Like achieving world peace, Leisring knows ending abusive relationships is a tall order. But the Sacred Heart High School graduate aims to make a dent in the problem through her work.

"I'd like to hope that we can at least if not quell (intimate partner violence), at least reduce it a bit," she said. "But a couple of things have to happen. You have to have some societal changes."

For starters, she said, people need to be less permissive of aggression, whether it is physical or verbal, and regardless of the gender of the perpetrator or victim.

"This should not take place under any circumstances," she said. "It's damaging for children to witness."

Beyond pushing beyond the traditional images of intimate partner violence, Leisring said the broader field is re-examining "treatment" for aggressors.

"There have been some summary studies, 'Does this treatment work?' The overarching conclusions are, for male batterers, the treatment does not seem to be overly effective," she said. She noted that a growing area of inquiry is how to make treatments better and more effective. The efficacy of women's groups is less clear. "Women's group's are still budding. We don't actually know the answer as to whether they work or not."

The arrest rates of women for intimate partner violence vary by state, depending on whether laws support mandatory or dual arrests. One study found arrests of women occurred in anywhere from 17 percent to 30 percent of cases. Leisring pointed to other research that found cases against female perpetrators were more likely to be dropped by prosecutors.

"Who knows what part of those cases might be dropped appropriately," said Leisring, saying such questions warrant further investigation.

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